Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-10
SUPERFLUOUs WOMEN.
MIR. Perham Has an Idea for the Eqsaliza~
ton OF the Sexes.


contributing during the winter many
interesting essays for the edifcation OF q
literary society of which he is member.
On Tuesday last he read a paper on
"Superfuous Women" before this organ
ization, and q portion of the essay is gwen
below. AS may be inferred, Mr.. Perham
is anything but misogynist:
| know of no text book for beginners
on the subject of superluous women,
therefore 1 approach it with great care,
prepared to dodge if necessary and es-
cape in case Of any blunder that makes
flight necessary, don't like to give the
opinions OF others too much, as some
thing that is loaded might be palmed Of
upon person of my unsuspecting nature.
But | have taken pains to inquire of q
number of married friends of mature age
and. great experience, as we'll as several
aspiring young men who are anxious for
| the position of Son-in-laW in wealthy
families, and find that there is q we'll de-
fined opinion among men that there are
superhuOus women, and in this way |
| have prepared a little list, rather incom-
plete, owing to the shortness of time al
lotted to me, but it shows that the ques-
ton is Rgitating the mind of man, and no
doubt 1t will soon be taken up for treatise
and discussion by theologians and scien-
fists and some practical means of solving
! the problem devised. The list includes the
women, who take snuff or wear spit curls
or give the children vermifuge for the
stomach ache, or spend their husbands
money for millinery, thereby causing him
to smoke fve-Cent cigars when his taste
demands two for q quarter, like they
have at the clubs the women's rights
woman OF uncertain age and very certain
ugliness; the female book agent of any
age or style of beauty-the more beauti-
full the more dangerous; the woman who
solic,ts aid TO bury her husband; the
servant girl who dresses better than the
lady of the house; the woman who don't
say "Thanks" for your seat in the car;
the woman who speaks disparagingly of
our children or calls them "brats"; the
giddy maiden who tries TO palm of her
forty-fve winters for twenty-five sum-
mers; the woman who goes shopping for
bargains, and last but not least among
fer ale offenders, is the mother who in
sisl5 upon staying in the parlor and d.
rectlng the conversation when her daugh-
ter's best young man calls. My aspiring
young friends voted unanimously that
this is an outrage that demands immedi-
ate redress.
1t is a well-known fact that there are
more women than men in this part of the
world. The excess in Massachusetts is
Sc, 600, and in New York II 900. Only think
of it, III, 200 more females than males in
these two states that must be provided
for in other than the usual manner. l
would state right here that l didn't get
these figures from the patent Office, but
took them from the dictionary, which is
about the only book that IS of any help in
getting up q discourse of this sort.
Civilization is Ct fault somewhere OF
this state of affairs would not exist; in
fact, it does not exist except IN civilized
countries. The people that we term bar
barians and heathens never have an excess
of females. They manage such things
better than we do; they give the subject
heroic treatment. Take for example
the kingdom of Dahomey. The
King merries ali Of the handsome
women and puts the ugly ones into the
army, and they do all Of the lighting and
do it successfully. In justice to our
colOred brother l will state that the peo-
pie Of Dahomey sre black. But we should
not be above taking ideas from primitive
or heather nations because they are
black, and I am going to try and profit by
the hints this heather has given US. l
think l am justified in this from the fact
that the plans tried here have proved
failure. The Shakers tried 10 revolution
ize society by their peculiar methods of
establishing colonies where the accident
Of sex did not count and al were given
employment and support, but they failed
probably because there was not excite
ment enough for the young folks.
The most determined and the most pTac-
teal effort ever made in this country to
settle this veXed question was the revival
of the patriarchal idea OF society by
gentleman named Joseph Smith IN the
year 1880. Smith patterned after that
Wisest of men mentioned in ancient his
tory, King Solomon, and allowed his fol-
lowers TO have as many wives as they
could support. Yet his system was not
appreciated by most people, and he was
killed by mob of men, who were no
doubt envious OF his popularity with the
ladies'. The Mormon system still lives,
but will prove failure on account of the
jealousy of the Gentiles, who, because of
their extTavagant ideas of dress and style
of living, cannot afford but one wife, so
they make law forbidding it and we are
OOISeQ 10 COuLTlVG SOUlG new uCIuOu OI
utilizing this waste material. You have
heard in a former essay about
how women are invading the
domain of man, getting to be lawyers,
doctors, ETC., but they keep out of the
dangerous professions; they take too good
care of themselves. To be sure, the
church helps out g little by sending some
of them as missionaries to heather lands,
and no doubt trey are appreciated by the
canDibal nations. They must be much
more toothsome than the tobacco soaked
male missionaries of the Olden times.
But we must try something Cd larger
scale, and l propose that we try part OF
the King of DahomeY's plan-make them
fight. Now, don't think that this is q
bloodthirsty idea, for 1t isn't, and | will
try to show you that il is not before l am
through. As preliminary give her
vote, and then she will soon want to
fight. A few active political campaigns
like that of 1888, for instance, will
develop an uncomfortable desire Int the
superfuous female TO smash things. But
we must not let her do it Unfortunately.
We must organize her into battalions
with great care and attention 10 detail.
We cannot form them into regiments
with only the height limitation, IS we do !
men, but must sort them out, for in the
4,,1. 1sy,.- q 49,,